Giannakopoulos, Andreas

Abstract [en]

This paper sets out to answer the research question “Has the post-September 11 ‘war on terror’changed the way in which the EU approaches military cooperation, despite the unwillingness ofmember states to cooperate on the matter and to surrender national sovereignty over themilitary? If so, how?” in order to test the theoretical framework of constructivist institutionalismin the setting of counterterrorist military centralisation and cooperation within the EU.Constructivist institutionalism predicts the drive towards institutional communitarisation bymember-states, in terms of discourse, norms, ideas, and practices. In order to test this, the case ofthe United Kingdom is chosen, as the least likely case of a drive towards militarycommunitarisation. In particular, the British discourse, norms, ideas, and practices following the2005 London Bombings and 2015 Paris attacks are examined. However, the progress towardscommunitarisation is not observed in these cases, as there is no mention of EU militarycooperation. These results are not what the theory predicts, and indeed, EU militarycommunitarisation is currently taking place, at least discursively. This reveals a shortcoming ofthe theory, as it assumes the underlying institutionalist norms of itself to be shared by anymember-states as well. The conclusion arrived upon is that whilst constructivist institutionalismis a thorough and holistic theory, it must be further developed in order to be usable in theanalysis of not only institutions, but also their member-states and their behaviour.